Women, Ethnicity and Empowerment

Abstract

This article critically examines the ideology of empowerment and its links to debates about solidarity and difference among women, especially those from oppressed and minority collectivities. The notions of community, identity, culture and ethnicity are examined together with issues of women's citizenship and coalition politics. The article argues against simplistic notions of empowerment based on identity politics which homogenize and naturalize social categories and groupings and which deny shifting boundaries as well as internal power differences and conflicts of interest. As an alternative, the article suggests the idea of `transversal politics' based on situational dialogues.